A missed opportunity...

It might seem odd that I should write about Franz Schubert, who really had no great connection with Weimar. Schubert's connection, however, lies with Goethe. I must explain that I've never read anything by Goethe – though that isn't to say I haven't tried. After living three years in a town and area that idolizes him, it becomes tiring to hear the name. So I am less inclined, really, to talk about Goethe, as I know little about him and I honestly haven't become very interested. (Hopefully I'm just saving a great artist to appreciate later in life.) Goethe only, perhaps unfortunately, has meaning for me in that his poems have been set to music, and this music has been set by some of my favorite composers, namely Schubert. And even here, the Goethe poems that Schubert set to songs are not as interesting to me as other songs (such as Der Tod und das Mädchen or Der Hirt auf dem Felsen). So why write about Schubert and Goethe in a blog about Weimar?

Imagine this: Schubert is a teenager, and quite in love with a girl named Therese Grob. He is, however, unable to marry his love – at his young age he is not reputable enough as a composer or musician to have financial stability or the status needed to be granted a marriage license in Vienna. So Schubert's dear friend Josef von Spaun takes it upon himself – with a great admiration for his friend's music – to present the composer to a famous poet, that is Goethe, with whose recognition, Schubert could gain the regard needed to succeed professionally and thus personally. Spaun puts together a compilation of Schubert's setting of Goethe's poems (including such songs as "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and "Erlkönig"), and sends it with a letter to Goethe on April 17, 1816. This letter was ignored.

There are other "what if" instances – Goethe had an affair that reached its height in 1815 with a singer named Marianne von Willemer. 10 years later in 1825 she wrote a letter to him saying how she requested Beethoven songs from a music store and was also sent a song set to Geheimes from Goethe's West-oestlicher Divan. Schubert had set Geheimes (op. 14) to music in 1821 and was the only major composer to every do so. Unfortunately, though, Marianne didn't mention the name of the composer – was this a lost chance for Goethe to be confronted again with Schubert's name? Interestingly too, is that Marianne was a friend of Anna Milder-Hauptmann, who was a famous singer and sang a song from the same set (Suleika II, op. 31) in Berlin in 1825 – she was also a friend of Schubert's.

Schubert tried, though, to have another attempt at gaining Goethe's recognition. It seemed to be important to him. He wrote himself then to Goethe in June 1825. This letter was also ignored.

If Goethe had only taken the time to hear Schubert's songs, and ultimately recognized him, perhaps Schubert would have had a more prosperous, happy, healthful life. If he could have married his first love, perhaps he wouldn't have succumbed to seeking satisfaction in brothels, and wouldn't have contracted syphilis, which led him to his untimely death. He could have perhaps lived far longer than the 31 years he was granted, if only Goethe had paid some attention.

Kenneth Whitton's book Goethe and Schubert: The Unseen Bond sums this up well.

Why Weimar?

I have really struggled to begin to summarize Weimar's rich cultural history. I did find a nice 550-page encyclopedia of Weimar's history, and in flipping through it at random, I quickly came across a well-known name again and again. The number of significant people who lived and worked in Weimar is listless, and actually, in learning a bit about Weimar's importance in German cultural history, it's often easier to ask who didn't play a role.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is of course the most obvious name associated with Weimar, who lived here under the Herzogtum (Duchy) Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, and was, as some argue, the most important German writer ever, known for leading the Weimar Classicism era. Goethe, then did quite a job of drawing others to Weimar, including Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). Schiller is, of course, perhaps best known for his Ode to Joy (An die Freunde), which Beethoven set to music in the final movement of his 9th symphony. No, the poem wasn't written here. There are other important figures, who while may not be very well-known in America, are household names in Germany: Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), a head pastor of the Weimar city churches, who also published philosophical articles and is known for his important collection of regional songs, or Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), a poet and publisher, who helped the Duchess Anna Amalia establish Weimar as a cultural center and whose translations of Shakespeare and Latin classics were vital to the Weimar Classicism. Martin Luther, too, going about his rounds in Germany, made a few stopovers in Weimar.

Let's not forget art either: Lukas Cranach (1472-1553) and his son by the same name (1515-1586), also made their home here, known for their portraits and alter pieces, with the elder being one of the most important German painters of the 16th century (I still remember my aunt moseying into the city church, now known as the Herderkirche, nearly falling over when she discovered the alter piece was nothing other than a Cranach); and then we have Walter Gropius, who made important impacts on New York City's architecture, and the Bauhaus art school and tradition, with Weimar being one of the main cities of the movement. The Bauhaus brought in teachers none other than Paul Klee or Wassily Kandinsky.

And of course the most important thing to me: music. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was appointed Kapellmeister here in 1842 and from 1848 to 1858 he was the head musical director of the Hofkapelle and the music theater, and even in the 1860s as he divided his life between Budapest and Rome, he still maintained a home in Weimar. Or Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), a composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist (student of none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and Joseph Haydn), who was the Hofkapellmeister in Weimar from 1819 until his death. While he might not be as well known today as other composers, he was considered one of the most famous pianists in Europe in his day, and brought Beethoven symphonies to Weimar. Or Richard Strauss (1864-1949), who was the Hofkapellmeister in Weimar from 1889-1894, whose symphonic works Don Juan, Macbeth, Tod und Verklärung, as well as his opera Guntram were premiered here. The young Felix Mendelssohn also had a little encounter in Weimar, as he was well-liked by Goethe.

I have to save the best for last, of course: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). In addition to a brief time spent in 1703, Bach spent 9 years, from 1708-1717, here as the court concertmaster and organist. While we don't know whether or not Bach enjoyed his time here in Weimar, he did struggle to get approval to leave, and the battle of which left him in jail for nearly a month. Nevertheless, two of his sons who were to become musicians and composers of their own right were born here: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

I'm afraid to say I am leaving out other important names, but this is a common hazard when trying to summarize Weimar's history.

It's really no surprise that I would find myself in Weimar of all places. I often have a ridiculously youthful passion for music history. I remember the utter excitement I felt when planning my first trip to Lüneburg, Germany in 2004 and discovering Bach studied there when he was 17. Weimar is no different – every other building has some cultural history and housed those who played a crucial role in the arts we have today. It's not a bad place to be!